Building for Biodiversity: Animal-informed Planning and Design
2023 Faculty Research Award
AWARD PERIOD: 2023-2025
Sigrid Adriaenssens, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is exploring how biodiversity and habitat loss in urban and built environments, though an increasingly critical problem, can be mitigated through animal-informed planning, a planning and engineering methodology in urban and suburban spaces that takes into account biodiversity as a guiding ethic in development and design, and where human and non‐human animals can co‐exist. The goal of this project is to present the first animal‐informed urban planning and infrastructure design methodology that generates and enhances bio‐diverse habitats and passages based on circular economy principles. The researchers use the Princeton University campus and its surroundings, which are home to a diversity of animal species, as a microcosm to study how design can impact biodiversity. This project identifies mammal species that indicate broader biodiversity, research and test animal‐informed suburban planning and infrastructure design, document their use, and raise public awareness of the enhanced campus biodiversity.
The project includes an undergraduate and graduate course during the academic year. The first, titled “Visible Wild,” is taught by Jeffrey Whetstone, professor of visual arts in the Lewis Center for the Arts; the second course, “Topics in the Formal Analysis of the Urban Structure,” is taught by Mario Gandelsonas, the Class of 1913 Lecturer in Architecture, and professor of architecture. Additional student tie-ins include HMEI summer internships, senior thesis generation, and an opening for four graduate students and one postdoctoral researcher to gain experience in urban planning research and related topics.
Participating Departments
Faculty
